Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact and role of accelerator and innovation programmes that support the growth of early-stage financial technology firms.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in the Government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, the UK aims to be the world’s most technologically advanced global financial centre, and to remain a leading jurisdiction for Fintech firms to start up, scale and list.
The Strategy set out a comprehensive package of reforms to maintain the UK’s global leadership in Fintech. This includes creating a competitive regulatory environment by making it quicker and easier for new firms to achieve regulatory authorisation, as well as welcoming the City of London Corporation and the British Business Bank facilitating greater access to finance. The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority have launched a joint Scale-Up Unit to enhance engagement with fast-growing innovative firms.
Research England is also supporting activity in FinTech through the INFINITY programme, a partnership led by the University of Nottingham and the University of Birmingham to help researchers explore commercial opportunities in financial technology. There has been good engagement so far, with over 100 research projects developing their business potential and a number of ventures now progressing towards market.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2026 to Question 111871, whether any net financial efficiency savings are expected to be attributable to Network Rail from the technology and systems investments, after accounting for their up-front and ongoing costs; and what estimate her Department has made of the net cost or benefit of those investments.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail will write to you on this issue and incorporate a response to your question into its response to a similar question asked previously by Jerome Mayhew MP.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total amount of Government investment in research into neuroendocrine cancers has been in each of the last ten years; and what specific funding allocations have been made for neuroendocrine cancer within the forthcoming National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department for Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.
Between financial years 2015/16 and 2024/25, through the NIHR, the Department for Health and Social Care committed approximately £8 million for new research projects, alongside supporting infrastructure, into neuroendocrine cancer. The following table shows a breakdown of the £8 million for new research projects, alongside supporting infrastructure, into neuroendocrine cancer, from 2015/16 to 2024/25:
2015/16 | £882,750.75 |
2016/17 | £1,170,974.89 |
2017/18 | £798,743.56 |
2018/19 | £833,349.43 |
2019/20 | £867,204.19 |
2020/21 | £878,387.61 |
2021/22 | £829,818.37 |
2022/23 | £610,754.01 |
2023/24 | £455,640.58 |
2024/25 | £707,561.31 |
As well as funding research itself, the Department invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations to support and deliver research in England, known as NIHR infrastructure. NIHR infrastructure underpins research. The spend is not directly attributable to specific research studies for the most part, but an estimate is derived based on the number of studies in neuroendocrine cancer against the annual infrastructure spend.
The findings presented are based on point-in-time analysis for 23 March 2026. The data does fluctuate due to changes such as contract variations and updated information regarding financial reconciliations and support activity.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including neuroendocrine cancers. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to the public and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to early-stage and discovery brain cancer research in the last five years; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of that funding for building a pipeline of new treatments.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department for Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UKRI, primarily supports the discovery science and fundamental biological research. NIHR’s research is complementary to the MRC's focus, supporting the translation of discovery science into patient benefit through a range of mechanisms, including direct funding through our research programmes and through funding to underpin and enable research to take place.
UKRI plays a significant role in supporting interdisciplinary cancer research to bring new discoveries closer to patient benefit and commercialisation. UKRI invests in cancer research to understand the underpinning biology of cancer to inform prevention, diagnosis and treatment options, and to support academic and industry-led innovation in new cancer therapeutic discovery, medicines manufacturing, and precision medicine.
More than half of UKRI’s active projects in this area focus on developing and testing more effective treatments for brain tumours, including reducing side effects.
We are committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research and have already taken steps to stimulate scientific progress and build scientific capacity to do research on brain cancer.
In the five years between 2020/21 and 2024/25, the NIHR has directly invested £10.4 million into research projects and programmes focussed on brain tumours. The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, including facilities, services, and the research workforce, further allowed leverage of research funding from other donors and organisations. These NIHR investments in infrastructure are estimated to be £32.9 million over the same period.
Over six years, from the financial year 2018/19 to 2023/24, UKRI committed £46.8 million to brain tumour research. In addition, in January 2026 the NIHR announced increased investment of over £25 million in the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium. The world-leading consortium aims to transform outcomes for adults and children and their families who are living with brain tumours, ultimately reducing lives lost to cancer.
We’re also strengthening our partnership with Cancer Research UK, including approximately £3 million to co-fund Brain Tumour Centres of Excellence. This investment will accelerate the move from foundational research to delivering innovative treatments for patients.
The NIHR continues to welcome high quality applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including brain cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to the public and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the use of artificial intelligence tools by consumers when making mortgage and other financial product decisions, and (2) the implications of that use for consumer protection.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The majority of mortgage loans are intermediated. Mortgage brokers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and must comply with FCA Rules including the Consumer Duty and relevant mortgage conduct rules.
Regulated firms are already required to manage technology-related risks to consumers and financial stability, including those arising from the use of artificial intelligence (AI), under existing FCA rules. These include requirements relating to governance, operational resilience and data use.
The Government believes that the safe adoption of AI by the financial services sector is a major strategic opportunity that will power growth across the economy. As set out by the Chancellor in her Mais lecture, the Government’s ambition is for the UK to be the fastest adopter of AI in the G7, to boost productivity, drive economic growth, and deliver better products for consumers.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on the development and implementation timetable of PAS 2161, the proposed national data standard for road condition monitoring, and what assessment her Department has made of its potential to support more proactive identification of potholes and other road defects by local highway authorities.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DfT worked with local authorities and the wider highways industry to develop the PAS 2161:2024 Road condition monitoring (RCM) data specification which was published in September 2024, and is available online, at: https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/road-condition-monitoring-rcm-data-specification.
In 2025 DfT carried out the process to approve road condition monitoring technologies for use against PAS 2161 for reporting the condition of the local classified road network in England to DfT. The list of PAS 2161 approved technologies was announced in September 2025 and can be found online, at: https://ukrlg.ciht.org.uk/ukrlg-home/guidance/road-condition-information/data-collection/pas-2161/. The report on the approval process can be found at: https://www.trl.co.uk/publications/pas-2161-road-condition-monitoring-trials-2025-report.
As of April 2026, local authorities will be required to use a PAS 2161 approved technology on their classified road. PAS 2161 compliant data will be collected by DfT for the first time in Spring 2027, upon completion of the surveys for the financial year ending March 2027. Further details of the timeline can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-condition-monitoring-standard-pas-2161/road-condition-monitoring-standard-pas-2161
PAS 2161 will enable local authorities to collect more comparable and consistent condition data on their classified road network. A range of technology types have been approved for use against PAS 2161. Local authorities will be able to choose any PAS 2161 approved technology allowing them to collect the evidence they need to effectively maintain their roads and meet national reporting requirements.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of fintech lending platforms to improving access to working capital for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is a world leader in Fintech, and attracted $3.6 billion of investment in 2025, second only to the US. The Government is committed to making the UK the world’s most technologically advanced global financial centre, and remaining a leading jurisdiction for fintech firms to start-up, scale and list.
Fintechs and specialist banks are an essential part of the UK's credit landscape, including access to working capital. The share of total nominal gross bank lending to SMEs by challenger and specialist banks in 2024 was 60 per cent.
Business models and financial technology have also evolved substantially, with more competition both for business banking and credit provision, increasing the options available to small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in and grow their businesses.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to prioritise rare cancers research in the next round of National Institute for Health and Care Research funding allocations; and what proportion of the overall cancer research budget will be allocated to (1) brain, (2) liver, (3) stomach, (4) pancreatic, and (5) oesophageal, cancers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.
The Government will implement the Rare Cancers Act to make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including rare cancers. Our approach to funding research is through open and fair competition and peer review to ensure that the highest-quality proposals, most likely to deliver real impact for patients, are funded without imposing financial targets or limits.
Welcoming applications on rare cancers to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the UK’s contribution is to the NATO Innovation Fund.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Following agreement by the Secretary of State for Defence and Chancellor the UK’s participation in the NATO Innovation Fund was announced on 30 June 2022. The fund invests in start-ups developing technology which fall into one of NATO’s defined EDT groups. It will be NATO’s venture capital fund. The fund’s objectives are:
The cost to the UK of participating in the fund is c£11 million per annum until financial year 2029-30.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much Innovate UK funding has been awarded to organisations based in Lincolnshire in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Innovate UK’s grant funding database shows that during the most recent three full financial years, Innovate UK offered £26.8 million in grant awards to organisations registered in Lincolnshire. This is broken down by financial year as follows:
Financial year | Committed funding |
2022/23 | £11,783,553 |
2023/24 | £8,618,065 |
2024/25 | £6,444,029 |
Total | £26,845,647 |